The most popular upcoming gadget in the mobile industry is a smartwatch. Many companies like Google, Apple, Martian, Dell etc. are coming up with the next-gen smartwatches in India. Recently Samsung and Sony had announced the Galaxy Gear and SmartWatch 2 respectively, but one is an expensive deal whereas the other is not a big success. The Pebble is a smartwatch which was released earlier in 2013 via the crowd funding platform, Kickstarter.

I wanted to write a post about the top electronic gadgets of 2013 and found this very attractive gadget which looked quite innovative. Without thinking much i just clicked on the pre-order button (because the website didn’t charge any money for the pre-order) on June 2 ’13.

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All of a sudden on September 1 ’13, i received a mail from Pebble that my order is ready, i just have to make the payment and my order will be shipped. Now, the payment part left me in a quandary. Paying 150$ for a watch which was not even that popular in the market and would work only with a smartphone connected to it all the time. I decided to give some time and efforts on the research before i buy it. Days went by and i could relate things with how can a smartwatch help me with my everyday activities. But eventually i decided to put the money somewhere else.

On November 29 ’13, i received a mail from Pebble that they are offering a 20$ discount for Black Friday and free shipping worldwide. I just couldn’t resist, i just needed a reason to buy this smartwatch and i guess this was a reason good enough. (I still don’t have a reason to convince myself that what’s the use of a smartwatch, the only reason i have is that I NEED IT). I placed my order the same day and made the payment. I went through a few forums and read that i would have to give a customs duty and some taxes to get it to India. So according to my calculations:

I received a mail from Pebble confirming my order and was told that i will receive a tracking number when my Pebble is shipped. From my past experience, all international companies ship the orders in maximum 24 hours. But i had to wait for 3 days to get my tracking number, until then it showed “Your order is processing”.

Regular shipping of Pebble is done through Singapore Post and after 48 hours we can track our order. After waiting for 3 days already, these 48 hours were not easy. I tried to check my status several times, but i would get the same error every time “If any of the below item(s) were posted/sent 3 months back, then please click here, else please wait for 48 hours for the status information of the following items to be available”. I even downloaded the iPhone app for SingPost to keep a track. 2 days went by and i was still getting the same error.

On 6th December, finally SingPost started showing the status of my watch and then my countdown began. I started looking at other people’s delivery time through different forums. SingPost showed the status as “Despatched to overseas (Country code: IN)”, but there was no update on the India Post website. I wished that i had ordered through DHL because waiting is an arduous task for me.

After 2 days the India Post website showed the status as “Insert item into bag (Otb)”. My excitement level reached to new heights. I started tracking my Pebble smartwatch in India every hour.

After a difficult 5 days wait, my Pebble arrived at my doorstep. And to my surprise, the postman DID NOT ASK FOR ANY DUTY. I had read people giving customs duty from 2500-5000 INR and getting the watch in 30-40 days, but i got it DUTY FREE in just 13 days.